More than three weeks after residents in Lima went to the polls to elect a new mayor, conservative candidate Lourdes Flores has conceded to Susana Villarán of the leftist Social Force party.
“There is a winner in this election, and it is Susana Villarán”El Comercio reported Flores saying during her concession speech. “I wish her the best success in the management that she will take on.”
The elections for Lima’s mayor were held on Oct. 3. Villarán held a slight lead over Flores during the delay in counting, which was due to irregularities in an unusually high number of ballot tally sheets. Half of the 8,384 cases were officially attributed to tally sheets lacking the mandatory signatures and fingerprints of citizen poll workers.
While Flores has conceded, Peru’s election officials have still not officially declared a winner.
“You win, you lose and devote yourself to the democratic system,” daily La Republica quoted Flores as saying on Tuesday. “Now, we will wait for the [National Election] Board to finish counting and declare a winner so they can make a transfer as soon as possible and in the most orderly way.”
“The most important thing right now is that Lourdes has expressed in gestures and words her democratic conviction that she has always had which I recognized and value.”
With 97.056% of the votes counted on Tuesday at 11:49 a.m., Villarán led with 38.39% compared to 37.57% for Flores, a difference of 36,525 votes.
